


Drawing Down Divinity

by Stitch_Witch



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asgardians as gods not aliens, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Magic, Mythology - Freeform, Original Characters - Freeform, Slow Burn, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-06 13:17:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17345921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stitch_Witch/pseuds/Stitch_Witch
Summary: "The brainwashing of members of S.H.E.I.L.D. meant that even the slightest change in her behavior was likely to get her shot.Whoever did it would be in the right too, because if her plan actually worked then she was going to break the most reviled man in the world out of a top-secret military base."Five years ago Gwen was approached by someone she thought she would never see again. Seers didn't leave their sanctuaries very often these days but this one had. They had grabbed her by her jacket and whispered three things in her ear; a location to search, an organization to join, and the name of the only person who could help her.Now she has to break the man who just tried to conquer the world out of jail and drag him around the world before the Cult of Enigma can free four ancient creatures of destruction. All while they're on the run from the Avengers.





	1. Chapter 1: Break Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which: a bold plan is put into action, and the Black Widow is taken by surprise.

All things considered the plan was going better than Gwen had anticipated. It was still going to be in her top ten list of worst ideas ever, but she was most of the way to her destination and the alarms hadn’t sounded yet, so she could probably call that a win. 

Gwen made it a point not to rub her sweating palms against the fabric of her pants as she made her way down yet another corridor. The ship had only just started to settle after their crash landing in the Atlantic, and even though they were operating on a skeleton crew at the moment everyone was still on high alert. The brainwashing of members of S.H.I.E.L.D. meant that even the slightest change in her behavior was likely to get her shot. 

Whoever did it would be in the right too, because if her plan actually worked then she was going to be breaking the most reviled man in the world out of a top-secret military base. 

A top-secret flying military base.

A top-secret flying military base with the Avengers on board. 

The trick was to take deep breaths without actually looking like she was trying to keep herself calm. 

Head up, shoulders back; walk with purpose, but not with any sense of urgency. Gwen had worn her 100% working woman, but still military approved, outfit. Really, all that meant was a pair of cotton pinstripe pants, and a plain white blouse with her long grey sweater coat over it, and the most sensible black shoes she owned. She was thankful to be one of the contractors, so she didn’t have to wear the body suit. Her black hair had been clipped back with a claw clip and her grey eyes were covered by her glasses. She also had a tablet, a file full of paperwork, and her position as “ancient studies expert” as her only defense against people asking her why she was going down to The Cage. 

Thankfully, few people questioned you when you were the official paid “expert” (read nerd) on ancient civilizations and languages. 

It wasn’t going to stop people from wondering why she was going to see the prisoner, but it would hopefully delay them from messaging Hill or Fury before she got there. 

Gwen rounded the last corner and felt her heart stutter with anticipation at the sight of the last check point. This was going to be the hardest part. There had been two previous check points, one to check her biometrics, fingerprints, and retina, and the second to go through her security questions. She didn’t know the guards at those stations, but she did know this one. 

She smiled as Connor stopped her just before the scanner. He was a tenured member of S.H.I.E.L.D. by this point, nearly ten years in and with a pristine record. Everyone knew he could be counted on in a pinch, that he was a steady, hardworking man who tried to make things easier on the people around him. By all standards he was a perfect agent. 

“Hey! I thought I saw you on the list for today. What’s up?” 

“There are some runes on the scepter I need to question our guest about. I think they might explain how he was able to convert people so quickly, and how he was able to keep so many of us under control.” 

Connor nodded and offered her the regulation grey plastic bin for her tablet, and then a second bin for her file. She placed them in as directed and watched as he ran them through the x-ray machine. There was nothing of note on the screen, so he waved her through to the body scanner. 

“Is it really necessary to try talking to him? Some of our best guys have been trying, and they couldn’t get a word out of him. Couldn’t you ask Thor? “

Gwen raised her arms as the machine hummed to life, and waited for Connor to give her the all clear. After stepping out of the box he did a cursory pass over with the metal detector wand which pinged her necklaces and ring. Gwen stuttered out a quick apology for forgetting such an obvious thing and hurried to remove them before she stepped back so Connor could scan her again. 

“I already asked Thor if he recognized the symbols and he couldn’t identify them. And since I’m technically the foremost expert in ancient languages on the ship there isn’t really anyone else I could ask in house. I could send them to a few of my usual people, but Fury wants this done before Thor takes Loki back to wherever it is they live, so I’m a bit out of options. I don’t even expect to get anything out of Loki, but I just want to be sure I’ve covered all my bases.” 

Connor nodded in understanding, “I guess that makes sense. Point Break doesn’t seem like he’d be the type to know much about mind control, and we’re all pulling doubles trying to figure out just what Horn-Head brought through that portal.” He typed a couple of commands into the terminal, just so he could double check the scans of her personal items, but by that point it was merely a formality. He logged her visit in the system while he was at it, and then went right back to chatting. 

Gwen did her best to hide another frown as she slipped her necklaces back on. If Connor knew just how powerful these gods actually were he’d probably be under lockdown in Medbay with a lot of other agents who had cracked at the sight of actual aliens flying around New York, and he certainly wouldn’t be so glib about calling them those names. Thor was much smarter than anyone on the ship gave him credit for, he’d probably have been able to tell her what the ruins were with barely a glance, but it wasn’t like she had actually gone to him for help in the first place. 

Guilt gnawed away at her stomach as she gave Connor another smile. 

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask, Sam wants me to invite some coworkers over for dinner some time. Says I’ve been hiding them away so long you must all think they’re imaginary. What do you say?” 

Gwen gave a little gasp of surprise and fumbled with her tablet causing it to skitter across the table and hit Connor’s cup of coffee. With a second gasp she snapped forward and managed to catch the S.H.I.E.L.D branded cup before it could spill all over her papers. 

“Whoa, nice catch!”

Gwen gave Connor a tight laugh as she tapped the cup with her finger, “Thanks. It’s those superhero reflexes I’ve been hiding.” 

They both laughed again as Gwen handed Connor his coffee and grabbed the last of her things. Her stomach was positively rolling at that point, she could already taste the tang of bile in the back of her throat as she fought the urge to be sick. She wanted nothing more than to just throw out her whole plan and go hide in a supply room for a while. She needed to end this conversation and get moving. 

“I’d love to stop by for dinner some time, and I’ve been dying to meet Sam. Just pick a time that works for the two of you and I’ll bring the wine!”

“Will do!”

She was surprised Connor could be so chipper considering he was the first line of defense if Loki escaped, but he probably felt safer with an entire corridor rigged with electrified flooring between them. 

She tried to remember just how many volts the floor was supposed to produce as she walked the corridor herself. All agents had been sent an emergency email stating that Stark had “booby-trapped” Loki’s new holding cell, and that anyone who valued their lives would do well to remember where each one was. 

Nothing happened on her way down the hall of course, but she couldn’t help taking one last deep breath before she entered The Cage. 

The Cage was the unofficial title S.H.I.E.L.D. was using for the Hulk Containment Area #2. Unlike the first model, which was meant to contain and potentially euthanize Dr. Banner, this one was meant largely to keep him quiet and under control. Instead of a circular cell with mostly glass walls The Cage was a rectangular room with a single bay window to see inside. Rather than a long hard drop, the cell was designed to pump the room with enough methyl propyl ether to put an elephant under, thereby preventing Dr. Banner from transforming into the Hulk. It was also located in the labyrinthine bowels of the ship where you didn’t know how to get in or out unless you’d been shown the way. 

Loki was sitting on the bench attached to the wall, looking miserable and injured. Gwen knew for a fact that gods didn’t injure easily, but she supposed his appearance was just more proof of just how dangerous the Hulk really was. Even standing at the door she could see he was cradling his side where reports stated he had several broken ribs. Off to the side she could see the Asgardian manacles Thor had provided, and what looked to be some kind of muzzle sitting next to them. 

Gwen suppressed the shudder that ran up her spine at the sight of the muzzle. She’d only ever seen references to those things, and she had no desire to see if they actually had all the features the texts said they had. 

Gwen suddenly became aware of the fact that she had been standing in the doorway staring at the god for some time, and he was watching her back. Even from his spot leaning against the wall she could see the calculating glint in his eye as he took her in. She had seen that look once before on an old friend, and she remembered not liking it one bit. 

Taking one last deep breath Gwen squared her shoulders and calmly approached The Cage. 

“My name is Gwen Blythe, and I’m here to ask you a few questions.” 

The god raised his head to look at her, but did not bother to move further. He seemed unsure what this woman could want with him. She didn’t seem to be part of the tactical personnel for S.H.I.E.L.D, but he certainly doubted they would send someone defenseless in alone. He had learned that lesson with the Black Widow. 

Gwen carefully opened the file she brought and flipped to roughly three quarters of the way through the pile. Most of her paperwork had to do with the staff Loki had brought to Earth, notes about trying to decode the strange symbols along the handle and blade, theories about how he had managed to use it to control so many people. All of it was just a smoke screen for the four pictures she had hidden within the file. 

The first picture was taken from some distance away, and showed a tree that had turned a sickly ash grey, with thin, brittle looking limbs that spiked out at sharp angles from the trunk. There were no leaves on the tree, no sign it had ever really been alive, and the bark was craggy and oozing a pale yellow sap. Long ropes hung from the branches with strange star shaped figures tied to the ends and what looked to be a stone slab nestled among the roots. One could just barely make out a small doll nailed to the trunk of the tree if they looked close enough. 

The next picture was a close up of the star shaped objects hanging from the ropes. Each one was a cluster of small bones with a throng of leather carefully weaving the pieces together. The five bones were smeared with different materials to dye them varying colors, red clay, yellow pollen, blue woad, charcoal black, and an orange that could only come from juniper root. At the center of each bundle was a single tooth. 

The third picture was a close up of the straw doll. Though the construction of the body and dress were incredibly basic the face had been carefully crafted to lifelike appearance. Tear tracks ran down the cherubic cheeks while the hands were posed to look as if the doll was in the act of trying to push the spike out of itself. 

The final picture showed the stone alter in the roots of the tree. It was a single piece of grey stone, pockmarked by time and use. Deep grooves ran across the stone in several directions, each one stained dark crimson. More stains covered the surface of the stone, though they were flaking or faded depending on the freshness. On the front of the stone was carved Vegvísír, the Norse runic compass, and around it four sets of runes that they both knew were names. 

Gwen had pushed each photo against the glass and watched Loki’s face as he took them in. There had been no emotion, no reaction, to them. He remained seated on the bench the whole time, eyes carefully roaming the images, but otherwise making no comment. 

“Do you know what this ritual site is for?” 

Faster than she could blink Loki was suddenly standing right in front of her on the other side of the glass. He towered over her, easily six and a half feet tall and he was still somewhat hunched so he could favor his broken ribs. He frowned down at her and the picture, mostly the picture, and she got the distinct feeling that he would have ripped the paper out of her hands if it weren’t for the Plexiglas between them. 

“How did S.H.I.E.L.D come across this fengselssted?” 

Gwen took another deep breath just to feel the comforting stretch of muscles in her chest. The word he had spoken set her back teeth aching. 

“They don’t know about it.”

Loki looked down at her, his gaze piercing blue, nearly glowing. 

“I was contacted several years ago by someone who had knowledge of a different ritual site. They told me they suspected someone was interfering with all four of the Sites containing the Vættir of Hy-Brasil. I investigated, and they were right. Some cult has decided to break all four Sites.” 

“And what does that have to do with me?” 

She had to give him credit, Loki faked nonchalance quite well. 

“You were the one who captured the Vættir. You created those seals. And you’re the only one who can lock them again. And while you may have just tried to enslave this world even you wouldn’t wish the fury of those monsters on your enemies, let alone innocents who don’t even remember these creatures’ names.” 

Loki was silent, regarding her with coldly calculating eyes. She found she was holding her breath, waiting, hoping, that somewhere in that stony face he would still feel some kind of sympathy for the pathetic mortals he had wanted to conquer. A cold sweat had begun to gather at the small of her back, and she desperately wanted to reach back and scratch, but she held back. She had the distinct feeling that any sign of impatience would only make this harder. 

Finally he spoke, “What, exactly, are you offering?” 

“Your freedom, in exchange for helping me stop this cult. I will get you out of that cell, and off this ship, but then you have to help me put the seals back into place and put an end to the cult. Afterwards we go our separate ways, and hope to god that S.H.I.E.L.D. never finds us.”

“Done.” 

Gwen just barely stopped herself from gaping at him. She had expected more, more clever words, more bargaining, more Loki. Instead she was being given something quieter; something she would bet was closer to the man of the myths. What exactly had happened to him that he was so changed from all the mythological accounts and Thor’s own experiences? 

She had her guesses, but there was no more time for questions. 

“Thank you. Step back from the glass please.” 

He didn’t move. Obviously he was still trying to intimidate her so that he could get out and escape on his own, but they both knew he was in no condition to really make the attempt. It just didn’t stop him from trying. 

Gwen steadfastly ignored the attempt, and turned to the electronic lock. Thankfully she had managed to bribe one of the IT crew to give her the master override code for these keypads after getting locked out of her office one to many times. It was incredible how people would just give you anything if you acted guileless and made yourself a small but persistent problem. 

The door slid open soundlessly and Loki moved to step out of the cell. He took the few seconds she stood motionless before him to draw up to his full height and gave her a grim smile. Gwen didn’t back down, but she knew he saw the brief flash of hesitation on her face. 

“Lead the way.” 

And, as if triggered by his words, that was when every alarm in the Helicarrier went off. 

Gwen ignored the blare of the sirens; she had been expecting that to happen for the entire walk to The Cage. Instead she turned on her heel and crossed the small room to the door, which opened the moment she got close. The hallway beyond was awash in emergency lights, but she was relieved to note that the floor hadn’t electrified yet. It hadn’t been easy getting into the wiring, but Stark had been in a bit of a rush finishing the new upgrades and he’d left a few key components exposed. The hard part had been prying the panel off the wall of her lab without the cameras seeing. 

As they sped down the hallway Gwen took a moment to check on Connor in the guard booth. He was slumped over at his terminal, sound asleep and completely unaware of the escape going on. A part of her was proud to see her little plan had worked, but she tempered it with the knowledge that it was the best way to keep him safe. She had only a second to feel sorry for the friendship she was destroying before they were moving further down the hall. 

The guards at the second and third stations were likewise unconscious. By some small miracle her plan was working nearly perfectly. It made that familiar paranoid itch between her shoulders start up again, because the only reason it was going so well was because things were about to take a sharp left turn. Hopefully their luck would at least hold out, and the rest of the corridors would remain empty. Gwen was willing to have the bad luck come after they had gotten off the Helicarrier if it meant avoiding people she knew or, worse yet, the Avengers. 

Surprisingly, Loki was keeping close on her heels. She suspected it was mostly due to the fact that he had no idea how to navigate the halls of the Helicarrier, but she was also sure that he was just bidding his time until he felt he could dispose of her. 

They had made it nearly halfway to her escape point before they were finally intercepted. 

“Stop where you are, and put your hands up!”

Gwen winced at the sound of the familiar voice behind them. Of all the people who could have intercepted them it would be Natasha. 

Gwen raised her hands and turned around. The Black Widow was frowning at her, gun trained steadily on Loki, but Gwen knew that could change in a heartbeat. The Black Widow was calm, and showed no sign what must have been a mad-dash run to get down to the prison. Her hair wasn’t even out of place. 

“Care to explain what you’re doing before Fury gets down here, Agent Blythe?”

Cold sweat tracked down the back of Gwen’s neck. All of her senses were suddenly keenly tuned to the area around her. She could hear Loki trying to suck in air without aggravating his broken ribs, the pounding of her own heart in her ears, the hum of the central air circulating in the vents above them. The lights were suddenly burning bright, casting everything in stark shadow and forcing her to squint. Her sweater scratched at the skin of her wrists making her fingers twitch with the urge to scratch. 

Slowly her fingers curled around the cuff of her sweater and plucked at the loose yarn there. 

She had hoped to hold off a little bit longer. 

Gwen took one shaking breath, felt her lungs expand and stretch her ribs, and looked Natasha in the eye. 

“I am so sorry.” 

She flicked the fingers of her left hand and the lint went streaking across the room toward the Black Widow. The spy had already begun to train her gun on Gwen but it was too late. Before the Black Widow could get the shot off the wool connected with the bare skin of her face and in the blink of an eye she was transformed. 

Where former Soviet spy once stood there was now an alpaca in the middle of the corridor. 

The animal stared at them in startled disbelief for a long moment before letting out an outraged bleat. 

Loki laughed. 

Gwen shot him the dirtiest look she could manage then turned and began sprinting down the hallway. She could hear yelling from more agents pouring into the prison floor, and now she knew they were on borrowed time. If Natasha had already made it down then the rest of the Avengers wouldn’t be far behind. There were just three more hallways between them and freedom. 

“I will admit I wasn’t expecting you to be a witch.” Loki managed to laugh, “Here I’d thought all your kind had gone into hiding.” 

Gwen glanced back at Loki, he was easily keeping pace with her and wasn’t even breathing hard yet. She feared for a moment that she had greatly underestimated him; that the resiliency and accelerated healing of the gods was more that she had accounted for, and any moment now he was going to break her neck and leave her corpse for the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D to trip over. The only thing holding him back was that he needed her to get out of there. 

Behind them they heard the sound of voices shouting and boots pounding on the metal floor. A man’s voice rose above the din of the response teams calling for Loki to surrender. For his part Loki looked briefly worried about his brother’s approaching fury until Gwen grabbed at his arm and urged him to speed up. 

They crossed the last corridors at a dead run with the sounds of their pursuers growing ever closer.  
Finally Gwen brought them up short in front of one of countless unmarked doors just in time for the members of S.H.I.E.L.D. to get a line of site on them and open fire. There was only a heartbeat of a moment for her to work and so she reached up and plucked the light from the fixtures above them and threw all of it down the corridor. 

Gunfire echoed down the narrow space, deafening the two escapees, and putting holes in the sweeping end of Gwen’s sweater. The light was just barely bright enough to blind their pursuers and force their shots off target. It was blind luck that Gwen managed to slam her hand down on the control panel and get the door open in time for them to tumble through, preventing them from getting seriously injured. 

They didn’t have time to catch their breaths though. The door shut behind them and immediately went into emergency lockdown, but that would only keep them safe as long as it took Thor or The Hulk to break the door. If past experience was anything to go by they only had a few precious moments to work with. 

Loki sagged for a moment and watched as Gwen staggered to her feet and crossed to the center of the room where their exit stood. There in the center of the room stood a door, painted dark blue with a yellow frame, and standing completely unsupported. He could see tiny nicks and scratches on the wood that looked to be from years of use and wear, but he also didn’t sense any magic either. 

A lack of magic on an item meant very little when it came to witches however. A witch’s magic didn’t hang around them like a cloak or an aura unlike most other magic wielders. They tended to have small reserves that they took great pains to hide, and then used potions and enchantments bolstered by magic pulled from the world around them. They had learned their lesson about showing their power openly a long time ago. 

He watched her work with great interest even as the first slam of Mjolnir reverberated off the door. There was a simple spell he hadn’t even noticed, a glyph to rebound any attacks made on the door. It only covered the door though, and it was only a matter of time before someone else guessed they could go through the walls. He did feel a brief sense of admiration for the witch; it was simple but clever, and would give them just a few moments more. 

Gwen was focused on the task at hand, completely oblivious to Loki’s assessment of her skills and the chaos from the hallway. She pulled her spell components from her sweater pockets with practiced ease. They were simple small jars, innocuous to the untrained eye, but brimming with latent magical potential as she uncapped each one. To the East, red dust made from a crumbling brick she had removed from a road in Boston. To the North, a feather from an albatross nursed back to health by a boy whose voice had not yet broken. To the West, the well-worn sole of a boot from a single mother given in return for a night of freedom. And finally, to the South, a jar full of brackish water taken from a river that flowed from a mountain to the ocean and drawn on the night of a new moon. 

Next she produced a small twig from some hidden inner pocket. It had been carefully wrapped in cloth to protect the blacked end from breaking or rubbing off as she moved about. With it she began to scribe a few quick symbols on the door, at the top she wrote out their exact coordinates in longitude and latitude, along the left side she scribed the sun, a rough outline of a bird in flight, a road, and a boat. On the right side she drew a flame, a tree, a curling breeze, and a water drop. 

Then she spoke: 

We walked across the bridge in silence  
And said “Goodnight,” and paused, and walked away.  
Ritual of apology and burden:  
The evening ended; not a soul was harmed.

There was a roar from outside the door that Loki was unhappily acquainted with. He could hear the security teams scrambling to get out of the way as the Hulk came surging down the hall, then Thor yelling that this was his duty to recapture Loki, only to be drowned by the green giants response. 

The only reason the wall didn’t immediately buckle under the berserker’s first attack was because Loki just barely managed to scrape enough power together to extend the rebound glyph on the door to the surrounding walls. Even then it was only enough to prevent the walls from collapsing entirely. 

“Hurry, Witch!” 

Gwen didn’t look up from the symbol she was scribing down the frame, but she nodded once to show she had heard him. Loki retreated from the door as a second blow left a perfect impression of the Hulk’s knuckles in the metal where his shoulders would have been. Above the commotion of the monster he could still hear his brother calling for him to surrender. 

Gwen finished the last symbol and took just a second to check her work. She should have been more thorough, but there wasn’t time, and she had to trust that all the practice she had been doing would hold up, and they wouldn’t accidently end up half way through a wall or plummeting to their deaths somewhere over the Alps. Seeing that Loki had been able to survive a direct confrontation with the Hulk she thought that he’d probably have a 50/50 chance of living through any glitch in the spell. 

She redrew a symbol she didn’t quite trust, checked the spell components hadn’t been moved thanks to all the attacks, and decided it was as good as it was going to get. There was no more time, and Loki had backed up to the very edge of her spell circle without actually crossing over. With nothing left to do, and an angry mob on the other side of the door she snapped the brass key off her necklace and shoved it into the lock. 

The wall finally gave up its valiant stand against the Hulk at just that moment. There was a rush of bodies through the new hole in the wall as both S.H.I.E.L.D.’s security teams, and the Avengers, flooded in. Gwen had just enough time to catch sight of the entire team coming through the door, weapons all pointed at the two of them. She could see Commander Fury and Agent Hill at the back of the group, their faces set into cold detached masks. 

It was too late though, Gwen’s spell was already in motion, the magic surging from the components through the floor and into the door. The entire room filled with light and there was a burst of hot air as the door swung open. She had only a moment to reach back and grab onto Loki before they were both dragged through the portal.

As soon as the ends of Loki’s coat passed through the frame the light immediately went out and the whole structure burst into flame. The fire triggered the emergency extinguisher systems leaving the shocked members of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers standing staring at where Gwen and Loki had been while the room slowly filled with water.


	2. Chapter 2: A Debate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the newly formed Avengers discuss Loki's escape and Gwen's potential alien status.

“So does anyone want to explain what the fuck just happened?” 

Silence from everyone at the conference table. Silence from the bridge crew who were all studiously turned to their stations, and very pointedly doing their jobs. Even the Galaga kid was typing away at his computer. 

Then it was broken by a gentle nasal hum from the ginger alpaca in the room. 

Stark broke into giggles despite the glares being shot his way, it was just so ridiculous. There they were, The Avengers, newly formed and tested, and one of their key members was a South American farm animal. Considering that he hadn’t slept for nearly 72 hours a little giggle fit shouldn’t have been that big of an issue. 

While Stark tried to collect himself Doctor Banner took the opportunity to remove his glasses and clean them again. He’d already cleaned them several times since joining everyone at the table, and in all honesty he knew the glasses couldn’t get cleaner, but it was really the only thing he could do with his hands at the moment. Once it became apparent that he was stalling for time Bruce slipped them back on and asked the question everyone was thinking. 

“Are we sure Professor Blythe wasn’t under Loki’s control?” 

Fury reached out and tapped a couple of controls on the panel next to him. Holographic images of the woman who had freed Loki from his prison came to life over the table. She was about as unremarkable as people came, and if they hadn’t been specifically looking for her in the footage she would have gone completely unnoticed. 

The footage started with a shot of her arrival at the S.H.I.E.L.D. transport base roughly seven hours after Loki’s arrival. She checked in and shuffled on to the plane along with several other members of the research teams. Everything from the ride over to the moment she walked into her office was on record. When Loki’s agents had attacked the ship they showed her huddled in a safe room with other non-combatant personnel. They had shots of her looking for her lunch in the commissary fridge sometime in the early morning after the battle once all the panic had subsided and the ship had begun to settle. There was long hours of footage of her sitting at a small desk covered in papers and books with screens showing Loki’s staff as she tried to decode it’s symbols. 

Fury tapped more keys and the footage from the break out came up. They showed her walking down the corridor to the prison, her brief exchange with the third checkpoint guard, and then her conversation with Loki. 

“We have every second of her day from when she boarded the ship shortly after Loki’s arrival on Earth to the moment they left. She never came into contact with him or the staff at any point. Additionally, from what we can see in the footage, she didn’t show any outward signs of being controlled like all of the agents who were under his power. As far as we can tell, she just decided to go rogue.” 

Thor raised his hand slightly from where he had been resting it against his face and said, “And you were completely unaware of the fact that she was a witch?” 

All eyes at the table turned to him. Thor remained unfazed by the varying looks of disbelief and near outrage trained on him. 

“I’m sorry, did you say “witch”?” 

Thor glanced over to Captain Rogers noting that, though the man looked just as disbelieving as the other people at the table, he seemed to be leaning more toward exasperated acceptance rather than thinking the god had lost his mind. If there was anyone at the table who would listen to what he had to say in the matter, it was going to be Captain America. 

Thor let out a little laugh, “I mean, it’s quite obvious isn’t it? She turned our friend here into a-what do you call them?”

“Alpaca.” Agent Barton supplied. 

“An alpaca. She turned Agent Romanoff into an alpaca with just a piece of wool and a bit of magic. It was sloppy to be sure, but there’s no denying what she is.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” Tony said, “Are we really going to take this guy’s word on this?” 

Thor frowned, had the people of Midgard really stopped believing in even the most basic parts of magic? If they had then he was going to have a lot to explain. 

“What else would you call it Stark? You see with your own eyes what she did; do you really still deny the existence of magic?” 

Tony scoffed, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair, before giving Bruce a look that made it quite clear what he thought of the matter. Bruce signed and returned the look with one of exhausted resignation. Across the table Agent Barton and Captain Rogers watched the exchange without a word, each lost in their own thoughts. 

Thor gave a sigh of his own, then reached out and began typing at the monitor in front of him. To everyone’s surprise he was able to bring up a set of images quite quickly, not that they knew just what he was capable of. All it had taken a few hours and the help of an over eager S.H.I.E.L.D. member to learn how to use this antiquated technology, but now he had a basic grasp of it. Really, just because his people used magic to power their creations didn’t mean there wasn’t any crossover between what Midgard used and what he was used to. 

With a final flick of his fingers Thor collapsed all but three of the recordings Fury had brought up. He pressed another command and the earliest footage came to life. 

The time stamp said it was about 4 o’clock in the morning, roughly three hours after everyone had reassembled on the Helicarrier and most of the crew had switched over to the skeleton shift. Gwen entered the commissary carrying a cup of coffee and gave the few agents who were either wrapping up their shifts or just starting a nod before going over to the refrigerator. She spent a couple of moments obviously moving around other people’s lunch bags before finally finding her own. Meal obtained she went over to the coffee maker, got herself a refill and then left. 

“You’re saying that she performed magic there?” Tony scoffed. 

Thor very pointedly did not sigh. Instead he rewound the footage to when Gwen was looking for her lunch bag and then zoomed in on the hand that held her coffee cup. Thor played the clip again and everyone watched as she carefully dipped the fingers of her free hand into the cup and then used the liquid to scribe a quick rune on a few lunch bags. 

“That rune she put on the bags is one used to help those who have trouble sleeping, depending on what she had in the cup she could have made a very basic sleep spell and applied it to the meals. She uses the same rune with the final guard to Loki’s cell.” 

Thor brought up the footage of Gwen and Connor’s conversation just before she broke Loki out. Once again he zoomed in on her hand just as she caught Connor’s coffee. In the few seconds she held it they could see her index finger just barely bend and flex as she wrote the symbol on the lip of the mug. 

“It’s a very basic spell, you take something that a person would use to keep awake, usually a drink or a meal, and you use that rune to give the item the opposite effect. In the case of the “lunches”, for example, while the food would normally energize them she instead gave it the properties as if they had had a great feast. With the “coffee” she removed the energy giving properties. The liquid in her cup probably contained chamomile, which would have added to the soporific effect.” 

The entire room was silent. 

Thor decided it would be better to continue that wait for someone to crack a joke. 

“Now the transformation spell she used on Agent Romanoff was sloppy work. Obviously, the witch hadn’t expected to be waylaid by someone of Agent Romanoff’s caliber and had to act without thinking. I expect that the sweater she was wearing was made from the fur of the creature the witch turned Agent Romanoff into. However, she didn’t have time to mix it into a potion or form it as a proper curse so the spell wouldn’t have its normal potency. I expect Agent Romanoff to return to her regular form in another hour or so.” 

“Are we really going to sit here and believe this?” 

Stark again, this time looking bewildered and offended as he looked from Dr. Banner to Fury in an obvious plea for someone to agree with him. He even gave Captain Rodgers a long, measured look, as if doing so would somehow make one of the other members of the group chime in. 

Dr. Banner pulled his hands away from where he had clasped them in front of his face, then said, “I’ll admit that I find all of this pretty hard to believe, but we also don’t have any other explanation as to how Professor Blythe managed to do all of this.”

“Bruce, we literally just stopped an alien invasion from destroying New York. For all we know she could just be one of those things in disguise! This could just be some weird space tech that she used to bust him out so he can try this thing all over again!” 

“We have footage of Professor Blythe from weeks before Loki arrived. Nothing in any of the footage suggests she could have been replaced by one of those aliens.” Agent Hill chimed in, “Additionally, the security measures we set up require a biometrics check, including fingerprint and retina scan, and a basic status check. She answered all her security questions correctly, nothing came up abnormal in the scans and, aside from her jewelry she didn’t set off anything at the full body x-ray.” 

“So unless you’re proposing she’s been an alien since the day she was hired and we somehow missed it Thor’s explanation is looking like our only one.” Fury finished. 

Silence fell over the room as everyone took the time to let it all sink in. Even the most unobservant passerby would have been able to see the turning gears of thought in each person’s eyes. 

“So how do we track them down?” 

Everyone turned to look at Captain Rogers. Trust in him to cut to the heart of the matter. It didn’t matter if Professor Blythe was a witch, or an alien, or three children in a coat. The means for how she had done this could be rooted out later. What mattered now was finding the fugitives, and bringing them back to S.H.I.E.L.D. 

Thor smiled, “I believe I know just the person to ask.”

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s notes
> 
> This fic is written under the premises that the Asgardians are actual gods and not space aliens. As much as I find the idea interesting, I always wished they had gone with the bolder idea of actual gods in the MCU. 
> 
> With the inclusion of Doctor Strange and what seems to be actual magic, plus Thor’s for real god powers in Ragnarok I decided to finally let this idea lose. 
> 
> Translations: 
> 
> Vegvísír: what it says on the tin, the Nordic compass rune, used to protect one from becoming lost at sea, or to find your way in rough weather  
> Fengselssted: literally prison-place  
> Vættir: generic term for spirits  
> Hy-Brasil: a legendary island from Celtic mythology 
> 
> The poem is Sestina: Travel Notes by Weldon Kees https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=23647


End file.
